Japanese, and most other, nuclear plants are designed to withstand earthquakes, and in the event of major earth movement, to shut down safely. In 1995, the closest nuclear power plants, some 110 km north of Kobe, were unaffected by the severe Kobe-Osaka earthquake, but in 2004, 2005, 2007, 2009 and 2011 Japanese reactors shut down […]

Hidehiko Nishiyama, an official of the Economy, Trade, and Industry Ministry, which oversees the nuclear agency, held daily media briefings after the accident at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant in March. The ministry suspended Nishiyama from his duties for one month. It says Nishiyama repeatedly engaged in improper behavior, such as touching a female employee, […]

An independent panel has confirmed government involvement in manipulating public opinion on nuclear power. A panel investigating attempts by Kyushu Electric Power Company to manipulate public opinion on one of the firm’s nuclear plants has slammed the utility and a local governor for having dubious relations. The panel was set up after workers at Kyushu […]

Today, after the 5+ earthquake yesterday readings in the drywell of unit 1 are a whopping 512 Sv. This does fit with a pattern we have seen of gradually rising drywell radiation with major spikes after each earthquake. One had a 17 Sv jump after a quake. Another quake caused a 57 Sv jump. A […]

The word from the land is bad enough. As my colleague Hiroko Tabuchi reported on Saturday, Japanese officials have detected elevated radiation levels in rice near the crippled reactors. Worrying radiation levels had already been detected in beef, milk, spinach and tea leaves, leading to recalls and bans on shipments. Off the coast, the early […]

Ministry of Education, plutonium radioactive material apparently diffused in the nuclear power plant disaster Fukushima Daiichi Tokyo Electric Power Company, the city Futaba Fukushima off-site nuclear power plants, were detected in soil in place a total of six villages allegedly towns and Namie revealed that 30 days. The government has detected plutonium apparently from the […]

GE Hitachi Nuclear Energy said 35 reactors it built for utilities from New York to Washington may not shut down properly during an earthquake. GE Hitachi, which made First Energy Corp.’s Perry, Ohio, plant on Lake Erie, about 120 miles northwest of Pittsburgh, and Exelon Corp.‘s Oyster Creek plant in New Jersey, is recommending testing […]

Fairly high levels of accumulated radioactive cesium in Chiba and Saitama prefectures were shown in a new contamination map released by the science ministry on Sept. 29. The two prefectures, neighboring the municipal areas of Tokyo, are located about 200 kilometers from the disabled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant. The measurements for Chiba and […]

Mayor Tatsuya Murakami criticized the government sharply at a morning assembly opened on Sept. 30, twelve years to the day after a criticality accident at a nuclear production and processing company here that led to the deaths of two company employees and exposed 666 people to radiation. In front of the approximately 100 village officials […]

The United States secretly sought Japan’s support in 1972 to enable it to dump decommissioned nuclear reactors into the world’s oceans under the London Convention, an international treaty being drawn up at the time. Countries working on the wording of the pact wanted to specifically prohibit the dumping of radioactive waste at sea. But Washington […]

Federal prosecutors have charged another contractor employee at the Tennessee Valley Authority’s Watts Bar Nuclear Plant with falsifying electrical cable inspection records. Court records show John E. Delk as a supervisor for Williams Specialty Services of Tucker, Ga., is charged with the felony offense of knowingly and willfully certifying work that he knew had not […]

(AP) TOKYO – A strong earthquake has rocked northeastern Japan, which is still recovering from the devastating tsunami six months ago. The quake Thursday had a preliminary magnitude of 5.6. There were no immediate reports of damage and no tsunami warning was issued. The earthquake was centered off Fukushima, which was severely hit by the […]

From: Csontos. Aladar To: Klein Paul; Taylor. Robert Subject: Re: Stress Corrosion Crack Growth Rates of Stainless Steels in Chloride Solutions.docx Date: Friday, March 25, 2011 2:27:35 PM Rob, I agree with Paul that SCC is a secondary issue and only an issue as it allows the core radionuclides a pathway for release. Also, I […]